Admirals of the British Navy

idence, induced very largely by the Navy itself. For so long has the Navy minded its own silent business that we-otherwise so inquisitive a people-have come to look upon it as beyond ex

said in his sonn

our question,

gs that we cannot understand: sometimes, indeed, we deny them; but we are satisfied to take for granted the Navy. We know that it is there. Where "there" is we m

ublic opinion is land-made, and landsmen have neither time nor inclination to cope with the riddles of the ocean, which to most of us is vague and inimical, the home of risks and discomforts which it is wiser

followable, even if we cannot always understand them; daily bulletins are printed in the public Press. But the Navy keeps its secrets. Not only have we no notion where it is, but we should be little the wiser as to its inner purposes if, scanning the illimitable and capricious waves, it

e is justification, too, as the state of the sea to-day testifies. Thanks to the Navy there is at this moment hardly an enemy ship at large on the surface of the waters. The Ka

sity is legitimate; and this collection of portraits and brief biographies has been prepared in the belief that very many of those whose lives have been rendered secure by these efforts of the Navy would like to

are reproduced as nearly as possible in the colours of life. Looking over the forty and more Naval heroes whom he has limned, one is struck by a generic likeness which is deeper than such superficial similarity as the service beard can confer. Most of the Admirals look like Admirals-and is there a better thing to be? Certainly there is no better word. Not only have their ability and c

e Lives of the British Admirals," which was written by Dr. John Campbell, and, with periodical additions, so long held the field. The time for such biographies happily i

AS.